Jingle Bell Bites

Jingle Bell Bites are miniature shortbread Christmas cookies with green and red nonpareils speckled throughout for fun holiday cheer! These Jingle Bell Bites are perfect for a Christmas treat bag!

You saw these during Halloween, and now I’m introducing them again for Christmas. Jingle Bell Bites! It took me up until just five seconds ago to finally decide on what I would name these this time around. I started with “HO! HO! Bites” to keep in line with the “BOO! Bites“, but then I changed to “Holiday Bites” and then finalized with “Jingle Bell Bites”.

Ah, the life of a food blogger trying to figure out the perfect name when all I really want is to share a fantastic recipe idea with you! Name it what you want! 😉

You should add this to your Christmas basket list because it makes quite a bit! It’s a nice palette cleanser from the other very sweet things you may be including in your baskets, giving your gift recipients a little taste buds break! They’re also super easy to whip up and hold up for days. You can even freeze them!

Jingle Bell Bites

These Jingle Bell Bites are miniature shortbread Christmas cookies with green and red nonpareils speckled throughout for fun holiday cheer!

Prep Time15mins

Cook Time15mins

Total Time30mins

Course: Cookies

Cuisine: American, Scottish

Keyword: Jingle Bell Bites, Shortbread Cookies

Servings: 12-18 servings

Ingredients

1/2cupunsalted butter, at room temperature (plus more to butter the pan)

1/4cupgranulated sugar

1/4teaspoonalmond or vanilla extract

1 1/4cupsall-purpose flour

1/4teaspoonsalt

4teaspoonsChristmas colored nonpareils

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of an 8x8-inch pan, then line with parchment paper, pressing the sides and corners to stick.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar and extract at medium speed until creamy, about 1-2 minutes. Add the flour and salt. Mix on low speed until a dough forms. It will be crumbly for a while, but keep beating. Stir in the nonpareils until evenly distributed.

Transfer the dough to the lined pan and press evenly into the bottom. Use the parchment paper to lift the dough from the pan and transfer to a cutting board. Cut the dough into 1/2-inch square pieces (a pizza cutter works well). Place the squares 1/2-inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet; discard parchment paper. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, or until bottoms just begin to brown.

Reader Interactions

Comments

They look lovely! Do you or any of your readers know if I could possibly directly substitute the AP flour with the gluten free AP flour blends (I use King Arthur GF AP)? Cookies made with GF flours are generally more crumbly but I’m wondering if these might hold up instead of become a pile of crumbs.

I may try them anyway, but I just wanted to know if anyone else knew before I experiment.

Jennifer – I eat and bake gluten free and have found that sometimes you can sub directly but you often need to add other ingredients or tweak it in some way to make it work. The main problem with simply subbing out the flour based on volume (cups) rather than weight is that 1 cup of wheat AP flour doesn’t weigh the same as a cup of gluten free flour, and to further complicate the issue your cup of gluten free flour blend will very likely vary in weight from my gluten free blend because the combination of flours contained in it is probably different, unless we happen to be using the same brand.

King Arthurs All Purpose Baking Mix looks like it is the same weight as their wheat based AP flour, so I would try with that (rather than their A P flour for this recipe, which weighs more according to their website) it also has xanthan gum already added so that should stop if from turning into a pile of crumbs.

That said, my attempts to change a regular recipe to gluten free don’t always work, but I’ve learned a lot by trial and error!

Hi Jenna, The dough is very crumbly at first, but should come together after a couple minutes of mixing. If it just doesn’t come together, try adding another (very small) drop of extract or a little milk (a very very small amount should make a big difference). Hope this helps! Happy new year!

I made these and currently have them in the oven now. i followed the recipe but mine were crummy and i couldnt get them to stick together enough to roll them out or use a cookie cutter at all. i am wondering what i did wrong.

Hi Katelyn,
Sorry for the difficulties. How long did you let it mix. It is very crumbly but after you keep mixing it eventually comes together to form a dough. It takes a few minutes. If it still doesn’t come together, splash in a very tiny amount of milk and keep mixing.

You do not use a rolling pin or cookie cutter with these. Instead, press the dough with your hands into the pan and then remove from the pan to cut into squares with a cookie cutter. 🙂 Hope this helps!

Did you try freezing them? I made these last Christmas and they were just incredible. I’d love to freeze some as well. I just don’t know if I should freeze the dough or the baked cookie. I usually freeze the dough and thaw before baking.

My first batch was also very crumbly, they didn’t turn out so well. Today I doubled the recipe and added an extra 1/4 cup of butter and they turned out excellent !! I also used salted butter by mistake and it didn’t seem to hurt them at all. Melt in your mouth !!!

Would the size of the pan be 8″ X 8″? Which extract do you normally use, almond or vanilla? Do you keep mixing until it comes into a ball so it won’t be too crumbly? How many bits does one recipe make? How long would these keep?

Hi Cassidy, I haven’t tried a 9×9 but it would turn out a thinner cookie and may require less baking time. I’m not sure I understand your second question? The recipe does state to cut raw and then bake… 🙂

Hi Anonymous,
I’m sorry you had problems. It sounds like you did not mix it long enough to get past the crumbly stage. You can add a drop of milk or vanilla if need be. I’ve made these countless times with great results. Maybe try again now that you had a first time to practice. 🙂

Hi! I was so excited to make these to add to my Christmas cookie tins, however, I’ve been really disappointed with the way they are turning out. They taste delicious, it’s the presentation that’s disappointing. They do not hold their shape and I’m frustrated by what I could be doing wrong! I’ve baked them from frozen, and alternatively just straight from the refrigerator and in both cases they lose their shape. I’ve even adjusted my oven temperature and they still look like cookie blobs. They start out like perfect little squares as in your picture…

Hi Jen,
I’m sorry to hear you’re having problems! Are you at a higher altitude by any chance? Baking can vary in every kitchen, so there are also possibilities of humidity interfering, or oven temperature, different brand of ingredients, type of pan, parchment, etc. Are you using real butter, and not margarine or another alternative?

Delicious! By no means is this a “horrible” recipe….if they came out wrong, try again because nikki, these are yummy! I actually added a heaping tsp full of peanut butter and a little extra flour and they are to die for. Thanks for the recipe!

Just made these and couldn’t wait until they cooled off! 🙂 So delicious! I’ve made them as a gift for my kid’s tutors! I’m not sure how many will make it out of my house if my husband tries them! Great treat!

This shortbread recipe is rubbish and needs revision. I don’t know what enchanted mixer you’re using, but my dough never came together and from the looks of it neither did many other’s.
There are better shortbread recipes out there. I just used my old tried and true and added the sprinkles. It worked fine.

I’m sorry you had trouble with this recipe. We use it all of the time and haven’t had issues. Others here have commented they’ve made this recipe with great results. If yours isn’t coming together, you can add more liquid just a few drops at a time. Please remember, too, it takes quite a while of mixing before the dough comes together.

I make these every year in mass production multiple times during the holiday season. Everyone loves them. I make them in both the almond and vanilla flavors. I use pure cane sugar which makes for a not as sweet cookie as white granulated sugar. These are wonderful and so easy my son loves helping!
Thank you!